Intel core i7 7700HQ not supported by windows 11?

But the i7 7700HQ does have TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot.

Yes, according to Intel, the i7-7700HQ (my processor as well) supports Virtualization Based Security (VBS), or as Intel refers to it: VT-x.

Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x) ^‡^

Yes

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) ^‡^ 

Yes

In fact, every time someone mentions what the i7-7700HQ doesn't support that W11 requires, it can be shown that it IS supported by that processor.

VBS - Yes!

TPM2.0 - Yes!

Secure Boot - Yes!

PopCnt - Yes!

SSE4.2 - Yes!

It easily meets and exceeds the W11 requirements for number of cores and processor speed.

So **** Microsoft? I believe it's simply the case that MS somewhat arbitrarily drew a supported processor cutoff line around a specific date even though there are some CPUs that meet all requirements manufactured before that date. But, since MS did not formally validate W11 on those processors they just simply exclude them from the supported CPU list.

From what I can tell, yes the Core i7-7700HQ supports both HVCI and MBEC.

Note I Googled both of these topics to arrive at my conclusions. I am not a MS or Intel support tech, engineer, or other insider with direct experience or personal knowledge regarding these topics. In fact, until yesterday I've never heard of HVCI or MEBC. The information I'm relaying here was derived from my own online research.

Can just Google "How to enable VBS on Windows 10":

However, when I tried to enable mine it failed to enable due to the presence of some device drivers I had (mostly from Logitech) that were not compatible with enabling "Memory Integrity". That is, these drivers would not load or operate with "Memory Integrity" enabled. So, to avoid creating problems the feature would not enable. It did provide a list of the drivers on my machine that were incompatible with "Memory Integrity" and suggested checking with the driver provider (usually the device manufacturer, Logitech in my case) for an updated driver version that may support "Memory Integrity".

This is a good article that discusses how to upgrade W10 with W11 on a platform with an "unsupported" CPU.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-upgrade-your-incompatible-windows-10-pc-to-windows-11-now/

Todd

The problem is not with TPM 2 or Secure Boot but with VBS being required:

Virtualization-based Security (VBS) | Microsoft Learn

I have same problem. Here are two links that explain what is missing in the i7-7700HQ:

VBS is required:

Virtualization-based Security (VBS) | Microsoft Learn

Not sure if MBEC is an issue for our CPU:

Why Windows 11 has such strict hardware requirements, according to Microsoft - Ars Technica